rob aylestone
Moderator
One of the things that I've always been aware of is that if you work in sound, you've got to understand what you record or mix, and if you don't - keep away unless you want to invest serious time and energy.
I went to a live event, just as a punter - a huge array of different music styles, ranging from what appeared to be some kind of spoken poetry, with the most bizarre and unmusical noises from a guy with a strat who would never have noticed if the audience had got up and left - many did. Apart from the usual dance and EDM stuff I'm not competent to comment on, there was opera and a real orchestra. The stage was on a beach, so a modest sized orchestra playing the quiet stuff from Holst's the Planets, really needed some assistance from a pretty decent, and full range line array with subs. Three sound guys, just watching. I know the piece pretty well and at certain points knew the woodwinds would lose the fight with the wind, and the single double bass was going to struggle. Indoors, the balance of an orchestra works, but outdoors, it really doesn't work properly. The band that followed had mega bass, because, I think, the guys mixing understood the music. Typical festival so most mics preset, and clearly it wouldn't have taken much to sort out the weak ones. Yet the choice was taken to just let the wind spoil 45 mins of the day. No doubt, they'd been told orchestras are self-balanced, so they didn't even listen. Such a shame. A super PA that with just a little thought could have really helped. I suspect the orchestra hadn't played on a beach before - so they might have told the crew they needed no help - who knows? Such a shame.
I went to a live event, just as a punter - a huge array of different music styles, ranging from what appeared to be some kind of spoken poetry, with the most bizarre and unmusical noises from a guy with a strat who would never have noticed if the audience had got up and left - many did. Apart from the usual dance and EDM stuff I'm not competent to comment on, there was opera and a real orchestra. The stage was on a beach, so a modest sized orchestra playing the quiet stuff from Holst's the Planets, really needed some assistance from a pretty decent, and full range line array with subs. Three sound guys, just watching. I know the piece pretty well and at certain points knew the woodwinds would lose the fight with the wind, and the single double bass was going to struggle. Indoors, the balance of an orchestra works, but outdoors, it really doesn't work properly. The band that followed had mega bass, because, I think, the guys mixing understood the music. Typical festival so most mics preset, and clearly it wouldn't have taken much to sort out the weak ones. Yet the choice was taken to just let the wind spoil 45 mins of the day. No doubt, they'd been told orchestras are self-balanced, so they didn't even listen. Such a shame. A super PA that with just a little thought could have really helped. I suspect the orchestra hadn't played on a beach before - so they might have told the crew they needed no help - who knows? Such a shame.
